City/County Lack Leadership on Coal Issue

Part 12

Consultant Issues

No sooner had Whatcom County chosen the large consulting firm CH2M Hill and its subcontractors for the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process—which begins with a period of “scoping” the issues that should be addressed—when public questioning of the process and consultant chosen began.

Former Whatcom County Planning Director David Stalheim fired the opening salvo on getwhatcomplanning.blogspot.com with his June 3 “Whose EIS is This?” commentary, which detailed the major problems with the agreement that Whatcom County was about to enter into with CH2M Hill. Issues included the short (60 days) public-comment period during scoping, transparency of documents, meetings (such as those between the consultant team and other interests, such as the coal terminal proposers) and reports, and the extent to which the consultant could evade conflicts of interest.

Stalheim detailed his questioning in a letter (link at blog posting) to several county, state and federal-level officials. After much deliberation and more than a few public inputs, the county council extended the scoping period to 120 days and addressed some of the conflict-of-interest and transparency issues. The issue was also covered by John Stark in his June 5 and 6 blogs at blogs.bellinghamherald.com/politics.

No GPT, No Mo’ Coal Trains?

Community Wise Bellingham issued another of its timely studies on June 9: Coal Train Traffic to Canada and Gateway Pacific Terminal: An Analysis of the “Trains Are Coming Anyway” Claim and Its Implications for Local Taxpayers. Its key finding was: “Our analysis shows that little, if any, additional coal traffic would pass through Whatcom County to Canada in the absence of Gateway Pacific Terminal.”

The report is available at www.communitywisebellingham.org and was well covered by John Stark in his June 9 piece at blogs.bellinghamherald.com/politics and well presented by Tim Johnson’s “Gains in Trains” article in the June 13 Cascadia Weekly.

Ban Traffic Cameras but Not Coal?

Didn’t we learn early on in school that we citizen-folk have the right to petition our government for something or another called redress?

Tim Eyman-inspired petitioners against the “oppression” of motorists identified as they sped through stop signs and red lights certainly had a field day in last year’s questionable referendum. That exercise in motorhead democracy was cheered on by several public officials who might otherwise have shown leadership by simply working to correct the poorly crafted contract and ensuring fair enforcement. This in a city that has had more than its share of gruesome pedestrian and bicyclist killings at the hands of motorists in recent years.

But when the Coal-Free Belling-ham crowd turned up at City Hall on June 18 to deliver its petition for a ballot initiative banning the transport of coal through the city of subdued traffic enforcement, they found that they would likely be locked out of access to the November election—despite ostensibly having more than enough signatures. See the coverage by John Stark in his June 19 article at blogs.bellinghamherald.com/politics and the comments by former city council member John Watts, who derided the council for its “chicken response” and lack of leadership on this issue.

Tim Johnson’s “Gristle” column in the June 20 Cascadia Weekly presented a few different sides of this issue, exploring why the petition might not hold legal water as a ballot issue, but ended with this plea: “You can’t just kick it from the ballot, Council. You have to propose something of your own.”

A Large Lump of Anti-coal Petitions for Rep. Larsen

Lynne Oulman, the organizer of a SignOn.org cyber petition drive, presented a hard copy of a petition with more than 4,000 signatures to Rep. Rick Larsen on June 9 in the hope that he would support it. Although in full fundraising and campaigning mode, pro-coal terminal Rick did not seem pleased with this gift.

The petition reads: “To be delivered to: Whatcom County Executive, Public Lands Commissioner Goldmark, Governor Gregoire, The Washington State House, and The Washington State Senate: Deny the permitting of the Gateway Pacific Terminal and additional coal trains that will threaten our health, pollute our environment, and destroy the dreams and aspirations for our towns and communities.” It can be viewed or signed at http://signon.org/sign/terminal-coal-trains?source=s.fwd&r_by=4726384

Meanwhile, it does not appear that there has been any reply to date on the part of Whatcom County to the numerous responses to its Notice of Completion for the application filed by the Gateway Pacific Terminal (GPT) proposal as discussed in the June 2012 Coal Update.

No PEIS For the Afflicted

Whatcom Watch’s June 2012 Coal Update discussed how many regional leaders and jurisdictions were requesting that the relevant permitting agencies undertake a Programmatic Environmental Impact Study (PEIS) that would look at a broad and cumulative range of regional impacts of the several coal terminal proposals taken together rather than studied one by one. The most prominent of these communications was a letter from Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ response was along the lines of “I’m all right, Jack!” This led the Power Past Coal coalition to remind the Corps that there was broad support for a PEIS approach. Details and links at www.communitywisebellingham.org.

Bh- (enevolent)NSF

Those railway guys keep trying to sell our state and region on the great gift that their presence is—no matter what or how they haul.

On May 14 BNSF CEO Matthew K. Rose sent a letter to Gov. Chris Gregoire reminding her of all the great things that Texas-based BNSF was doing for our region and, especially, how wonderful the Cherry Point coal terminal would be. More specifically, BNSF claims that it:

• Invests over $100 million in maintenance and freight rail capacity expansion;

• Is committed to meet its obligations to keep Amtrak Cascades passenger trains on time;

• Is investing in new equipment that will reduce emissions;

• Is doing a great job controlling coal dust, etc.

Rose also complained that “much of the public debate about GPT (and other proposed export terminals) has been framed by national advocacy groups that are attempting to affect world energy and climate policy…(and) have raised a number of assertions which are incorrect….”

Unfortunately, Mr. Rose neglects to mention the much greater sums of money that federal, state and local governments contribute annually to railway capital improvements that provide some benefit for passenger rail but mostly benefit the freight railways. Nor does Mr. Rose explain the idiosyncratic BNSF rules that keep the Amtrak Cascades off the line for at least 48 hours after an incident such as a mudslide has been cleared and freight trains are running. Nor does Mr. Rose discuss how the railways fought against new emissions rules and how many years it will take for them to become effective.

Nor does Mr. Rose discuss how difficult it is to completely control coal dust, nor does he discuss the fierce battle that the coal interests are putting up against his efforts to get them to keep the rails clean, etc. His “outside agitator” type of accusations are a rude slap in the face to the thousands of local citizens throughout the region who have been voicing their concerns about the proposals. A link to Rose’s letter can be found in John Stark’s June 5 article at blogs.bellinghamherald.com/politics. Tim Johnson also covered this letter at cascadiaweekly.com June 13.

Okay Citizens, Start Coughing Up the Dough!

The B(uffett)NSF PR train rolled out of Olympia and stopped at Mount Vernon City Council long enough for Terry Finn, BNSF’s executive director of government affairs, to repeat CEO Rose’s talking points and to impress council members with the great generosity of the railway:

“Finn told the council that the railroad could, in some cases, contribute up to 5 percent of the cost of an overpass. Councilman Gary Molenaar asked who would pay for the remainder. ‘Five percent is typically the limit,’ Finn said. ‘Usually it’s a matter of federal, state and local governments to cough up the dough.’” (From Kate Martin’s June 9 article in the Skagit Valley Herald, reprinted in the The Bellingham Herald. Coverage is also in the June 13 Cascadia Weekly.)

Following Rose’s example, Finn did not mention the great public generosity bestowed on BNSF, nor did he mention the multibillion-dollar profits reaped by the railway each year.

What if a Coal Terminal Is Build and No One Wants Coal?

The shrinking demand for domestic and exported coal have caught observers’ attention:

• Eric de Place’s June 5 posting at http://daily.sightline.org/2012/06/05/china-turns-away-coal-shipments : “China Turns Away Coal Shipments: Why you can’t count on coal markets” discusses why there are at least 30 huge vessels loaded with unsold coal sitting off China’s coast.

• Clark Williams-Derry’s June 14 posting at http://daily.sightline.org/2012/06/14/coal-consumption-slips-again : “Coal Consumption Slips Again: Does the U.S. coal industry see the handwriting on the wall?” cites a recent BP Statistical Review of World Energy about shrinking U.S. and Canadian consumption fueling coal interests’ export ambitions.

• John Stark’s June 11 posting at blogs.bellinghamherald.com/politics: “Coal exports from the U.S. and Indonesia ‘continue to overwhelm demand’” includes links to informative reports.

• A June 9 posting: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/09/environmental-integrity-project-coal_n_1583446.html?ref=topbar includes links to a new report from the Environmental Integrity project that suggests that, for a number of U.S. coal plants, their social costs as a result of premature deaths exceed the value of the electricity they generate.

Sites for Sore Eyes

• blog.re-sources.org and www.re-sources.org/home/Gateway-Pacific-Terminal/take-action for information about the Power Past Coal Bellingham office (215 W. Holly St.), activist meetings, calendar, what volunteers can do, etc.

• www.sierraclub.org/coal/wa/ for information about Sierra Club and Beyond Coal news, activities, meetings and more.